The fall of the Republic
by Tylon
Summary: One year has passed since Darth Vader was born and the empire has rised. Maris Brood, former Jedi and now Bounty Hunter, comes to Coruscant for a new Prey, as a new, untold story, starts to unfold....
1. Bounty Hunters

**STAR WARS **

**Fall of the Republic**

**Act 1: A forced Unleashed**

The jedi have fallen. Now, a year after the Rebel Alliance was born, hiding in the shadows, the Empire had conqouered almost every planet in this Galaxy, and propably were already searching for a new one. While many people have died in this one year, because they were trying to destroy the empire, just like Starkiller, Maris Brood was still standing. Or crouching.

She kneeled on a rock, a few meters away from her target. She put the spyglass back into her pocket, grabbed the blaster which was hanging from her belt, and aimed at the head of a bounty hunter called Stilyion Gartes. She had been chasing him for over 3 months now, and she never had been this close to him before. She didnt know why though. He was good at killing his targets, no doubt about that, but he was lacking the ability of hiding. While she still wondered if somebody might have helped him, her fingers had positioned the scope at his head, without her really noticing, and she pulled the trigger, resulting in Stilyion to fall, and die before he even hitted the ground. She used her force speed to get next to his body as fast as possibly, so that she would avoid being seen, checked if he was really dead, and then decapitated him, as a prove. She stood up from the ground again, looking at her hand, soaked in blood of a dead person. Sure he was a Bounty Hunter, so he had been killing alot himself. But it still was hard for her to think about it. As she suddenly heared something like a car, coming closer, she used force cloak and walked back to her stone, from which she watched as an Speeder parked next to the house and a guy, probably Stilyions target, approached the front door, were the corpse of the bounty hunter was lying. When he found the body and realised that the guy was dead, he jumped up, and ran into his house, propably calling the police. Something Maris didnt need right now. She left the save rock and walked through the near and dark forest, back to her ship.

After an half hour, she already saw her ship sticking out of all the green around it. She slowly approached it, suddenly feeling that something was fishy about the situation. She stopped and gazed into the deep forest. Could it be, that somebody followed her? So far, she only got noticed twice, but you never know. Not sure what she would be facing now, she instinctively grabbed her Tonfa Lightsabers, not activating them though, and hid behind the next tree, perparing to get attacked any time. She never stopped looking for some sing of an enemy, while at the time she was trying to get her DGT out of her pocket, to figure if someone was inside her ship. She gasped quite as she heard a crackle somewhere near her. She jumped backwards, and flipped around, just in time to watch something braking the tree she was hiding behind, barely seconds ago. The second her foot connected with the ground, she activated her sabers, and dashed torwards the spot she last saw any movement from. To her dissapointment (and fear too), she didnt hit anything, and rolled to the side, avoiding a slash of something storng enough to cut down a second tree, that wasnt about 2 meters away from the point where the weapon made contact with the ground. She now jumped, having the advantage that she already was on the ground this time, right at the point were she suspected to find her attacker, started to spin around her own axis, turning her lightsabers into an deadly tornado. When she percipienced a grunt, she landed on her feet, turned around, and looked at a silhouett of something that just got fried by electricity. Seemed like she broke the stealth pack.

She pointed her lightsaber at the throat of the shaking figure, and waited till the pain cause through the electricity, would force her to meet the laser of her sword. At the end of this meeting, Maris was carrying two heads, not caring about who set him onto her. She was used to get attacked once in a while, cause hunting down bounty hunters, gets you an own, most of the time not that low. Especially cause she was well known for killing those with the highest bounty, and usually took away the job from other hunters, which they didnt take on the light shoulder. She unactivated her lightsabers, and hung it back at her belt, looked once more at the rest of the corpse, before she went into her ship, ready to take of this planet, and back to Coruscant, to get the bounty. She smiled happily, thinking about the fact, that she now got the doubled amount of Credits. She didnt know that this one return to the Planet of the Empire, would start something that would effect the whole Galaxy.

Out of the puddle of rain shot some drops through the air, as the foot stepped into it, pulling the upper body with it, while the head on top of the body turned around in fear, scared that his hunter might still be after him. He regretted it immediately as he felt onto the ground, tripping over an empty and wet box. He tried to get up again, but he was too slow, resulting in him being grapped by the collar, and being pulled closer to his hunter, the guy, that wanted to end his life. He struggled in fear that he would be dying here, and a tear ran down his cheek. Not having any mercy, the bounty hunter put his gun at the forehead of his defenseless prey. He grinned evil, showing how much he enjoyed this, slowly pulling the trigger of his blaster. As his prey fell onto the ground, he sighed, sad over the fact that the funny part of the night was over. He watched amused as he saw the blood flowing out of the hole in his foredhead, and filled the ground below the head.

"Enjoying it a little bit too much again?"

Tareyk turned around, looking into the face of his Twilek Partner Ferila.

"What are you doing here? The leader told you to assassin Gero. If you fail, you'll be killed." he said, in a calm and not caring way, like he always does. His Partner winked at him, and took a step to the site, offering the view of a dead body, lying on the ground, wrapped in, what seemed to be a fishnet, while the other end of the net was chained bound to Ferilas waist.

"I see." Tareyk said, glaring at the blood that was flowing out of the sliced up throat of the leader of the _Kirepiks_, which were well known for searching for a way, to bring back the jedi, and overthrow the empire. He and Ferila were send to kill them off, so they wouldnt be able to thwarting their plans.

"So. Slicing and dicing?" he asked, licking his lips while watching as more of the blood was flowing out of Geros throat.

"Yeah, best way. Never fails." she answered, glaring at the bloody mess herself, enjoying it just as much as Tareyk did.

"No time to waste here." she then added, snapping out of the trance, and tapping on her partners shoulder as she pasted by him.

He turned around to her, grinning at her, thinking what he always did: _How right you are._

Maris ship landed silently at the port of Coruscant, and like usually, there was a port guard, who wanted to check her papers, before he let her through the frontier. After that, she found herself on the market, where the most people immeditely tried to sell her some stuff, which would have never been allowed a year ago. She hid her Lightsabers under her coat, and a pulled the hood over her head. Covered in the shadows, she walked past amlost every stall, till she arrived at a bar, in which she was already awaited. As she approached the door, a Cathar was reaching out for her hand. She took it, and the female Cathar helped her inside. She usually never saw the face of a middleman, since almost all the time, they were dress like her. The Cathar guided her to a table in a dark corner, and prepared a seat for her. Even though Maris was confused that the Cathar said down, but she sat down across from her, looking at her yellow, slit-like eyes. Althought it wasnt very clear, a thought was growing in Maris head.

"So you are the client that wanted Stilyion to be emilinated?" she asked, and all the Cathar did was nodding. "Well then. I have taken care of him for you, and I've got his head in my ship, if you want a prove."

The Cathar smiled, looked at the entrance door, before she focused at Maris again.

"Okay. Show me the prove."

After the two of them made their way through the market, avoiding all the annyoing sellers, till they arrived the entrance of the port.

"Its in here." Maris said, pointing at a gate that had the number 2 on it.

The Cathar nodded, following her to the gate, where Maris reached into her pockets to get the key for the gate. When she got them, she put a small silver key into the keyhole, and was about to turn them, when she got interrupt.

"I wouldnt do that if I were you." a voice next to hear said.

Both women turner to the source of the voice. Standing there, in front of an hardly damaged podracer, was a boy, brown shoulder long hair, and cold blue eyes. He was about two years younger than Maris, but his look made him seem much older.

"Why not?" Maris asked, while the Cathar looked around, looking out for trouble.

"Because~e, a minute ago, about twenty Clone Troopers went in there, positioning themself around the ship." he explained. "And I think they are propably waiting for the pilot of the ship, which, I guess, is you. So. If you dont wanna die a fast and painfull death, you might be better off, not going in there."

She looked between the boy and the gate, trying to figure if she should rather believe the young stranger, or should go in there, and risk to get discovered, or even killed.

"But a few Troopers wont stop a Jedi, right?"

Maris now looked in shock at the boy, hoping that her client overheard that. But of course she didnt.

"Your a Jedi!? Damn!" she yelled, backing off a little bit, before she screamed: "JEDI! A JEDI!"

Maris couldnt believe how bad that just went. She lost the credits, got discovered, and was now surely hunted down by some Clown Troopers.

"Hey!" the boy called out. "Over here!"

Maris glared at him, a mixure out of anger and hope sparkling in them, and she decided to trust him this once.

She followed him through a back alley, avoiding the blaster shots that were heading torwards her. "Where are we going!" she asked, only to have to avoid a grenate, this time from the front. "Hey!"

"Dont ask, run!" he yelled back at her, and guided her through the streets of the town, pushing other people out the way, and finally stopped in the shadows of a dark side street.

The boy waited till her breathing calmed down again, before he said:

"I am Tarus. Viewer of the planets, and manipulater of the force."


	2. Yell dead cell

Maris sat on the ground, not taking her eyes off the young stranger, who first blew her cover, and then saver her from getting killed by the Clone Warriors. He also never took his eyes off her, but he was more staring at her short top, that was barely covering her breasts. Not like she did mind that, but it was a dangerous situation he was in right now, cause she could easily kill him right now, but he just didn't seem to care.  
After a long minute, the boy who called himself Tarus, was now focusing on the main streets, checking if they were still being followed. Maris took the chance to reach down to her lightsabers, and lighty put her thumb on the activation button. She was also positioning herself, so that, if required, she could jump up, and slice him into half. But, for what ever reason, she actually didnt feel any danger from him. But how could she? He just called himself _manipulator of the force._One word: Not possible. There is not one living being in this galaxy, able to manipulate force it self. All we can do, is letting it come to us, and help us, feeling everything around us. There was no way that this boy was able to do, what even master Yoda never had been able to. She smiled. Sadly, yes. But she smiled, thinking about all the Jedis, of her master, her friends back when she was a youngling, and then, what made her angry again, how they all were murdered and betrayed by Darth Vader. Darth Vader. No matter how much time passed, every time she thought about this black armored monster, hate, like she had never felt it before, filled her whole body, swallowed her, made her wanna kill him. Bringing her off the right path.  
"You wanna fry me?" Tarus asked, and pulled Maris out of her thoughts. She stared at him in disbelieve, not knowing what to think off his comment. So she just went with: "Excuse me?"  
Not the best, but better than all the other stuff that popped into her mind in that very moment. She stood up, still looking at him, before she went into a defense stance, waiting for him to make a move.  
"What are you doing?" Tarus wanted to know, but she didn't answer him. She just realised herself, that we she just did, had no purpose at all. She relaxed her body again, before she looked back at his eyes.  
"How did you know that I was a Jedi?" she asked, not really that much interested in it. But she wanted to forget that weird moment as fast as possible.  
Tarus just laughed quite.  
"I told you before. I am a manipulator of time. I can feel such things." he answered, still laughing.  
While Maris was not willing to buy this, she couldn't help but getting interested about one word he used.  
"You are _a _manipulator? So there are more you say?"  
Tarus, clearly thinking that no words were needed, just nodded, before he turned back to the main street, looking for enemies again.  
Maris wasn't sure what to think of anything that had happened in the last 15 minutes, but she had to clear her mind, so she could figure who was trust worthy, and what was the truth. She leaned against the wall, sighing shortly, before she closed her eyes, and started reliving these 15 long minutes.

Tareyk sat opposite to Berytias, a bounty hunter, well known for his dirty little secrets ever body was to afraid to ask about. The Draag was staring at Tareyk with a look, as if he was afraid, Tareyk would jump up all of a sudden, and shoot him in the chest. Actually, that was the plan. But of course, the hunter of the empire would be more "discreet". Tareyk slowly took a sip of his Beer, before he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a map which, just from its look, was about to fall apart. The hunter carefully laid it onto the table, and shove it over the table, showing the Draag that he was supposed to take a look at it. Berytias took it just as carefully as his opponent and eyeballed it, before he gave Tareyk a sideglancewith a questioning expression, as if he just got asked to solve a puzzle for 3 year olds. But that was, why everybody came to him with the old and antic stuff. He knew almost every language, cause he had been traveling for such a long time, through the whole galaxy.  
"What we have here, is a map that leads to nowhere." he said after a while, handing it back to Tareyk, who now had a confused look on his face.  
"What do you mean, nowhere?" he asked, staring in disbelieve at the moldering piece of paper.  
"You don't have to worry. The map leads to a planet." Berytias responded. "But nobody ever came back from that planet." he added.  
Tareyk looked back at him, now, with an grin on his face.  
"Nowhere, huh?" he said, starting to laugh, and was soon joined by the Draag. But not for long.  
Tareyk was still laughing as he leaved the bar, but neither did the dead Berytias, nor the waitress.  
"What a funny day."

Maris came back, had left her memories, and was now looking at Tarus, who hadn't moved the entire time. She would have felt it. She joined him, not really sure why, wondering what he was looking for, and why she even was still here. She could just steal another ship and leave the planet with it. He already blew up her business with the Cathar, so there was nothing left to do here, except killing him maybe, but that was something she didn't wanna do, just because somebody bothered her. It was a reason, but a bad one. As she was now focusing on some dark alleys, she spot a reflection of some metal, some metal that made her insides shriek, and she went back into the shadows of the side street.  
"They are still out there?" she asked, not able to believe how persistent those Clone Troops could be. She took her light sabers, preparing herself to attack, and was about to jump out of hiding, as Tarus grabbed her arm, instinctively she swung around, trying to kick his face, but the boy dodged it, grabbed her leg to, and threw her to the ground. He then gestured herto stay down, while he was leaving the hideout, and stepped onto the street, where he was already awaited by Clone Troops. Maris watched how the handcuffed him, and walked him through the market, towards a Glider Port, from where they would probably take him to a prison, or even kill him immediately. She couldnt let that happen, for what ever reason. So she used the boxes, which where placed next to the walls, to get on the roof of the house, from where she started to follow the group. It took about an half hour, cause of the amount of people that were out on the streets today and the turns and narrow streets they had to go through, till they arrived at the port, which Maris wonder, why they just didnt search for a dark alley to kill him. But that way, she might would be able to get him out of the fangs of the Troops, without actually having to fight. Cause showing them that she actually had light sabers, was about the last thing she wanted to do, and her blasters were in the ship, which she couldn't get to right now.  
"Perfect." she mumbled, jumping on the roof of the next house, only to get surprised that this one actually broke, and made her fall into the attic of the house beneath it.  
She cursed a lot, wiped the dust off her clothes, and ran through the dark attic, jumped out of the window at the end, and landed on the street, watched by a few shocked people, before she looked for Tarus and the Clones. They were gone.  
"Dammit!" she yelled, and kicked a box hard enough, so that people had to dodge it, or else it would have smashed their faces.  
_I am still a Jedi. I cant let him die because he tried to help me! I have to save him!_

Ferila looked at her partner as if he was crazy, which he probably was.  
"You want us to go to an unexplored planet, nobody have every commen back from?" she asked, being confused by that suggestion, cause most of the time, Tareyk was the one who planned before he did something.  
He nodded again, pointing at the map, before he turned around to there ship.  
"It is our only chance to get the phoenix crystal. With that, we can find every single Jedi." he respond.  
The orange skinned twilek looked at him in disbelieve, like he would just have suggested her to take a bath in a pool full of sharks. She took a step towards him, slightly poking him into his back.  
"Are you trying to fool me?" she said, wrapping his arms around his neck, something, he usually never responded to, but this time, he took her hands and looked at them.  
"The Empire is so close to rule over the whole Galaxy. With this, they will be able to find the last few people which could be able to stop them, and we will get rewarded." he said, while he was caressing stroking her hands. Ferila was confused, not only by what he did, but also said. She always though that he hated the Empire, and only worked for them cause he wanted a good life.  
After a while, she decided that she liked how he treated her, and pulled him closer towards her.

Maris was running through the last of the main streets, and finally reached the Glider Port. Three empty spaces. They were gone already. Maris jumped into the closest one, turned it on, and flew upwards into the traffic. Her Jedi reflexes allowed her to fly passed all the other cars, without even having to look at them. Her eyes were focused on searching for the clones. She turned left and drove into a narrow side street, leading her to the prison chambers. She didn't slow down. In fact, she actually sped up, waiting till she almost hit the wall, and then jumped off. The Glider hit the wall, which caused him to explode, and to take the wall with him. She jumped through the new hole, finding herself surrounded by the cry of thousand of people, mostly, she was sure about that, cries from innocent people, who never did anything but fighting against the Empire. She made her way through a long hallway, till she found the door with the words _Cell Block_on it. She kicked it open, used her force wave to get two guards out of the way, and let the force guide her to the person she was looking for. Maris jumped through another door, burying another guard under it, and ran down the corridor on the left side, which lead to a second cell block. There, she checked every cell, till she heard a scream from another room. Her body shook in fear as she stormed into the room. The second the door got kicked out of it hinges, she activated her light sabers, jumped into the middle of the room, throw the two weapons, one in front of her, the other one behind her, never opening her, but using the force to see instead. After she was sure that there wasn't any more danger around her, she opened her eyes, and they filled with tears as she saw the boy, she had been talking about just a few minute ago, blood all over his body, and countless burning marks. She couldn't even think of one way, a normal person could have done to him in that short time, but here, right in front of her, it had happened. She ran to him, kneeled next him and gently held his face, checking for life signs. Through her connection with the force, she knew it already, but her heart wanted to be sure of it. After said thing was done, she shouldered him and carried him through the halls of the Prison. She didnt encounter any guards on her way back, but somebody else.  
"Please! Let us out!" one of the prisoners begged.  
Maris looked at him, anger, hate and rage. Everything was directed at the Empire. So why not?  
She used the force to bust the prison cells open, from which the prisoners swormed out, and began there own adventure, most of them resulting in them becoming Rebels.  
But Maris didnt care about it. She cared about the barely living boy, dying in her arms. She know, right at that moment, that she never was closer to fall for the dark site before.  
"Mar-is"  
The Zabrak looked down at the hurted face of her new friend, if anything at all.  
"I can feel it. All your hate." he said, holding her hand like a father would hold the one of his daugther. "Let go of it. You dont have to carry it anymore."  
His grip grew stronger, and her hand began to shake violent, as she felt herself getting weaker with every second.  
"Let go of it."  
Maris screamed in pain, before she fell, and collapsed on the floor.


End file.
